Congratulatory Camping Trips
by DelicateInnocence
Summary: A week long camping trip with the boys to celebrate Kenny getting into medical school leads to an uneasy revelation and a generally good time. Rated M for strong language, drug use and Boys Love mentions in later chapters.
1. Chapter 1

_**Disclaimer: I do not own the series or the characters of South Park. I do not own any music produced by Skrillex or any future band I might mention.**_

The residents of South Park couldn't have asked for nicer weather as people woke up to a sunny day with a nearly cloudless sky. Most people were spending the morning sleeping in or getting ready for work, but some were packing up campers and RV's for summer camping trips with the family. A camping trip was the reason a small red Toyota Tercel was parked outside of the Cartman residence at 6 am on this particular morning.

"Come on, fatass, we need to hit the road!" An annoyed voice from a young man with disheveled black hair carried across the lawn to where Eric Cartman was hauling out a suitcase entirely full of blankets and things they'd need during the nights around the camp fire. He'd already loaded one suitcase into the back of the Tercel with clothes for himself and the owner of the car was grateful that his other two friends had packed light. They still needed to hit the liquor store and gas station for snacks before heading out.

"Aye, don't rush me, Marsh! I'll get there when I get there." Eric snarled back, lugging the suitcase up and over the lip of the trunk.

Stanley Marsh slid back into the rear seats of the car, sitting next to a yawning red head who was propping himself up against the car door with his elbow.

"I hope the gas station has energy drinks, I'm so fucking tired." Kyle Broflovski complained, sinking down in his seat.

"Okay!" Eric huffed as he shut the trunk, the lid barely closing under the strain of their luggage. "I'm done." He moved to the passenger door, shouting, "Shotgun!"

"You've got the front seat anyway, jerk!" Kyle shouted back.

"Yeah, I know. I just like to remind you all who is in permanent possession of Shotgun privileges." Eric boasted, jerking on the seatbelt to strap it over him. It wasn't as hard as it used to be; during high school, Eric had taken a lot more Physical Education classes than the rest of the gang and was actually more muscle than fat now. He was by no means buff but that didn't stop the boys from continuing to refer to him as Fatass.

"I can revoke them anytime, Eric." The tired voice of their driver, Kenny McCormick, was the first signal that they were ready to go. Had any of them forgotten to buckle up or pack something, Kenny would have simply stared at them until they'd remedied the situation.

"You wouldn't dare, Kinny, because you're poor and you need me as a friend." Eric never said Kenny's name properly, putting far too much emphasis on the E in his name, though it didn't seem to bother the blonde boy.

"I might remind you that I alone got myself into a good school and bought myself this car." Kenny responded calmly, adjusting the controls until the car began rolling forward and into the street. "Okay guys, liquor store first. I might need you two back there to look back at the traffic while we're going up, Eric's bags take up nearly all the space back there."

"Right." Kyle and Stan chorused together, taking a glance back so they could judge whether or not they could be of any help, should Kenny ask for a status report.

The liquor store down the road was always open, even early in the morning, for the occasional summer drinkers who started early or just continued from the night before. It was run by an old friend of the mayors and Leopold Stotch, formerly known as Butters, though Leopold was more a cashier who happened to be the inspiration for a lot of the interior design. Though they had drifted apart during the senior years of school, the gang chatted amiably with Leopold while they looked and paid, even coaxing the timid boy into helping them stack the back seat between Kyle and Stan with the boxes of alcohol.

The convenience store was considerably less interesting, each of them forking out their own cash for goodies they liked, heading back to the car with their bags clutched to their chests as if they thought someone would steal their snacks. Which, in their defense, Eric had been trying to do. He'd cut down on the junk food, but not entirely and Kenny made sure his snacks were well guarded by Kyle in the backseat before agreeing to hit the road.

"Yeah, day one of the celebration!" Kyle called out, raising his energy drink in cheers to their trip.

"Congrats on getting into medical school, Kenny!" Stan joined in, lifting up an imaginary drink.

"Y'all are a bunch of faggots." Eric said, returning with a tasteless middle finger to their cheers.

"Good to get out of the fucking town for once. Couldn't have been a better idea than to go camping." Kenny said, breaking out in a goofy smile as he glanced back at his friends before turning into the off ramp leading to the highway.

"Well I'm glad that's the case because this is the week my mother is finally letting Ike have a big birthday at our house, so I'll take the wilderness over preteens with cake on their faces any day." Kyle said, adjusting his seat so he could lean back against the luggage, rolling down the window and shutting his eyes in the face of the newly acquired highway driving wind.

"Ike's never had a big party before?" Eric scoffed. "Man, what a shit life that kid has. I was having big parties when I turned three."

"You are a selfish asshole." Kyle shot back calmly before explaining. "Ike never really had any friends, it's not like he had the people to even make up a party. The only reason he's got one this year is because he got new glasses and mom let him change his hair style so everyone thinks he looks like a fucking rock star and wants in."

Stan chuckled and held his hands up in surrender as Kyle shot him a look.

"I ain't judging, dude, just…Ike looking like a rock star is unfathomable. Your brother is the biggest geek in all of South Park and that includes you." Stan tried to justify his comment, but only succeeded in getting a middle finger in response from Kyle.

"We're hard workers, what can I say?" Kyle mumbled, going back to eying each car that passed them in the faster lane.

"Jews are naturally smarter, don't you know that, Stan?" Eric chimed in, only too fond of the old religious jokes he used to make in school. "They have to be good at _something_."

Kyle didn't even retort, unless you call the exasperated sigh that was quickly caught up by highway winds a retort.

Frustrated by the lack of reply, Eric covered his annoyance by turning on the stereo. Kenny hadn't equipped his car with an actual CD stereo yet, so in addition to fiddling with the volume on the radio and clicking the setting to AUX, Eric pulled out his iPod and the connector wires to hook his music up through the speakers of the Tercel. Eric had been really into electronica and dubstep lately, convincing the others to listen to it because it was '_So good, you guys, seriously!'_ and surprisingly enough, it was very enjoyable. Even Kyle had downloaded a good chunk of dubstep in the last week or so and though his mother insisted it was 'just noise', he filled his iPod with it and played it loud whenever she went to the store or to visit a neighbor.

Ruffneck Bass by Skrillex was what Eric had chosen to play and the initial beat had all of them flinching as Eric flipped the volume up to the highest they knew Kenny's speakers could handle. Which was pretty loud.

"Jesus, Eric, you trying to deafen us all?" Stan shouted over the mounting music and Eric ignored him in favor of bobbing his head in time with the beat.

Besides an awkward glaring competition between Stan and Eric via the rear view side mirrors, the rest of the trip was fairly uneventful. They rolled down the windows when the air conditioning in Kenny's car proved to be for shit and Kyle and Stan made faces at passing cars who cared to complain about the music with honks of the horn. There was some intense scream singing in which the entire car lit up with the sound of Kenny and Kyle singing to Florence + The Machine and Eric quickly coaxed Stan into singing along with him to Nicki Minaj in the promise of giving Stan a special gift when they got to the camping site. About an hour away from the camp grounds, Kyle fell asleep in the back seat, head propped against the door, the warm wind causing chaos to his hair. Apparently the energy drink hadn't helped too much, but no one complained because the moment the music fell silent and the car slowed down to signal them turning into the camp ground, Kyle opened his eyes and after a show of stretching out over the seats and strategically kicking Stan in the side, he was more awake than he had been when they left.

"Let me go in and talk to them, the booking is under McCormick." Kenny said, parking the car next to the main office and stepping out. The door creaked as it shut behind him and Kyle peered between the front seats to try and decipher what was going on in the office. Nothing much, apparently, because it took all of five minutes before the office worker followed Kenny out to the car and the conversation could be heard by everyone without trying.

"How many people are going to be in the site over your stay?" The worker asked, peering into the car as Kenny leaned back on the hood.

"Four, including myself." Kenny said without hesitation. "We thought about inviting some people over, but they found another lot just, like…ten minutes down the road. Is there a curfew in this place? If we went over there for a bit, any time we'd need to be back?"

"No," The worker said, looking back at Kenny before straightening up and resting an elbow on the roof. Eric made to poke the man's side, but Kyle smacked him and the brunette boy retreated with a glare into the back seat. "So long as you keep your key card, the gates will always open for you. We do lock the office and staff facilities by eleven, but you won't need to worry about that. The card is a simple swipe function and the gates will raise when it registers."

Gesturing to the large bar that blocked off the road from the camp site, the man pointed individually to the bar and the box in the middle of it that separated the In and Out bars.

"We do request that you lock up any valuables and be sure that your site is clean and safe if you leave for any length of time, however. We like to keep this place as safe as possible and cannot be responsible for missing valuables."

"Yeah, we'll do that." Kenny nodded in agreement. "Thanks."

"So a few more questions and I'll go print out a key card for you." The man said, crossing his arms. "Do you plan on drinking alcohol or smoking cigarettes while you're here?"

Kenny hesitated only a moment, but answered in the affirmative. He couldn't lie to public figures of authority, no matter how low class that authority was.

"You're allowed, don't worry." The man caught Kenny's apprehension and chuckled, clapping Kenny on the shoulder. "But we also try to keep this place family friendly. We put the people who have intent to smoke in an area away from the family sites, just to keep things smooth."

Kyle seemed to breathe a sigh of relief, almost thinking they were going to get in trouble for having alcohol in the car, but after a few more questions regarding length of stay, amount of luggage and size of the site they were going to, the gang tuned out and Kenny followed the worker inside the office to get the key card and the paper they required you to put in the window of your car to show you had a lot reserved.

Sinking back into the drivers seat, Kenny sighed dramatically and slammed the door shut.

"I thought that guy was going to invite himself to our site for drinks. Scared the shit outta me for a second." Kenny joked, tossing the paper to Eric, who put it up in the bottom right corner of the windshield, adjusting it like a perfectionist until it sat still and didn't shift around.

"We coulda offered him a beer or something." Stan said, ever the polite one, but all three of his companions quickly chimed in with thoughts of the negative and he fell silent with a small smile.

The site was nice, fairly spacey even though they were going to be using tents and not a camper, and it had a perfect circle of logs that Eric and Kyle promptly ran over to and claimed spots for tonight's fire. Each site seemed to be surrounded with a thin line of trees, individualizing them from the others and providing a thin veil of privacy. Kenny parked on the far right side of the site, away from the eventual fire spot and went to work dividing the luggage. Kyle's was the easiest to locate, being the only one in pristine condition with his name on a little decorated tag his mother had brought back for him from Hawaii. It had a little palm tree and an oasis scene next to the opening his name showed through. Kenny pulled the tents out last and tossed one to Stan and the other to Eric.

Eric had shoddy workmanship and Kenny ended up doing most of the work while Eric wandered away to start setting up their food and drinks on the picnic table provided at the site. They had coolers and water tight bags to put their stuff in just in case it rained and Eric expertly tied them to one of the planks of wood involved in the picnic table top. Stan and Kyle were sharing the other tent and worked together perfectly to put up a tent that Kyle personally circled to make sure everything was secure and smooth. Kenny made a comment about Kyle being a perfectionist and was glad to see his jibe cause Kyle to come over and nitpick about Kenny and Eric's tent. Which eventually led to Kyle helping Kenny finish the tent.

"Come on, guys, I'm fucking hungry!" Eric complained, sitting at the table, legs on either side of the board seat and glaring at the other three.

"Dude, how about you start a fucking fire and we can make hot dogs or something?" Kyle snapped back, gesturing to the dry area between the stump seats.

"There's no fire wood, dumbass." Eric retorted.

"Oh for the love of-" Stan straightened up from the tent, having just situated his and Kyle's suitcases inside. "I'll go with you to get fire wood and then we can light a fire."

"I think they had some around the sites, but go ask Phil, he can probably give us some." Kenny called after them.

"Phil?" Stan asked curiously.

"The office guy gave me his card, his name is Phil. You can't cut trees down in here, so go ask for help." Kenny explained.

"Ooh, gave you his card did he?" Kyle teased as Stan and Eric left the site to go find Phil. "Was there a number on that card?"

"Isn't there always?" Kenny asked, arching an eyebrow.

"You work fast, man." Kyle teased, standing up and going to readjust the luggage in his tent, compelled to do so by his fussy perfectionist ways.

"What can I say, I'm a doctor. Bitches love doctors." Kenny grinned stupidly, going along with the joke and pleased to hear Kyle laugh loudly from inside the tent.

"You just got into med school, _Doctor_ McCormick, don't get too ahead of yourself." Was the reply before the topic was dropped and Kenny set about finishing the little details.

It took all of two hours to fully set up, a task Kyle had insisted they do before he would relax and eat some food. Everything had to be packed or unpacked properly, set up and sealed from the weather. A fire was going steady by the time Kyle joined them around the circle of stumps, lightly kicking Stan's thigh until the dark haired boy moved over and relinquished his seat, which apparently had been the one Kyle had claimed earlier.

"So," Eric started once they had all settled down with pieces of hot dog meat on metal sticks Eric had bought years ago to roast marshmallows properly with. "What's the plan? I heard something about a party earlier?"

"Nothing gets past you, fat ass." Kyle remarked sarcastically, holding the stick between his knees to cook his hot dog while he fidgeted with his phone. They had agreed no phones during the trip, but Kyle had insisted that he send Ike a Happy Birthday text before shutting it off and had completely forgotten on the drive in.

Kenny chuckled and nodded in response to Eric.

"Yeah. We're here for a week, so I figured we should have something to do. Bebe and Wendy are up at the cabin like ten minutes away from here with some party going on in a couple of days. It's Rebecca's cabin, you know the one girl who got sick during the final exams this year?"

Kyle made a face and Stan proceeded to make retching noises before getting smacked by Kenny.

"Yeah, well her dad owns it and she throws parties there apparently. She's probably doing this one to make people forget that she was sick at school, but whatever the reason, there's gonna be girls and guys galore and lots of booze that we don't have to pay for."

"I'm in." Eric didn't need much swaying. Parties were always on his to do list.

"I don't know, I kinda wanna get hammered where I know my surroundings. Not with a bunch of girls." Stan sounded uneasy and they all knew exactly why. Stan and Wendy Testaburger had split up about a year ago for good and hadn't spoken to each other since. Wendy made a point of outrageously ignoring Stan every time they were required to be in the same room together, claiming to have been the victim in the break up. In reality, her fooling around with Token Black had finally made itself obvious to Stan and they had split based off the unfaithfulness.

"We're not holding your hair while you puke in the trees, you can at least come with us and puke in a toilet we don't have to clean later." Eric said, trying to coax Stan into going along with the idea, despite knowing that it would be uncomfortable.

"It's not for another few days, so we don't have to decide now." Kenny said, reaching over to pinch at his hot dog, checking to see if it was done yet. "Other than that, we have the lake just over there and tons of our own alcohol and Eric's special gift, so we should be just fine for the week."

Stan narrowed his eyes and looked over at Eric, remembering how he had been talked into singing Nicki Minaj in the car. "What exactly is the special gift, Eric?"

Eric's eyes lit up almost wickedly and he glanced around the circle of friends before handing his cooking stick to Kyle and getting up to rummage around in his and Kenny's tent.

"Now don't get all sandy in the vag about this, but I got a guy in town who does the best trading with this stuff." Eric said, emerging from the tent with his hands behind his back.

"Uh oh." Kyle began but Eric shut him up with a quick, "I said DON'T get sandy vag, Broflovski, Jesus."

Looking over at his friends, Stan caught a knowing sort of look in Kenny's eyes and knew that him and Kyle had been the only ones to not know about this gift upon waking up this morning. This fact alone made it very obvious that whatever was behind Eric's back wasn't exactly legal.

And indeed, when Eric drew his hands out in front of them, staying a safe distance away from the fire, Stan saw that it was a couple of bags worth of what looked very much like…

"Is that weed?" Kyle asked, eyes focused on the bags.

"Jesus, Kyle, shut the fuck u- yeah, it's weed." Eric said, making a show of his so-called gift. "There's this guy in town, he always sells good shit. He used to have an in with that shop keeper that did the medicinal shit way back when Stan's dad had huge balls-"

Stan groaned loudly and said, "Jesus Christ, Eric, can we not talk about my dad's balls on this trip?"

"Stop being a faggot, Marsh. Anyway! He's never mixed or had a bad rap or anything, so it's reliable shit." Eric finished, stuffing the bags into his pocket and taking the stick from Kyle to finish his dinner.

"And this is your gift?" Stan asked, his face clearly displaying how much he was trying to appear displeased with the turn of events.

"I got flavored paper too. Cherry flavored shit and watermelon are the best." Eric bragged, unbothered by the lack of enthusiasm.

In truth, none of them were strangers to drugs. They'd all tried some before, in varying degrees. Kenny and Eric were the only ones who had done so regularly enough to know how to roll their own joints and Stan assumed they'd be wallowing in the prowess of the said individuals when the time came around to smoke this.

Kyle had had the least experience with the substance, but didn't seem opposed as he jokingly poked the corner of a bag sticking out of Eric's pocket and said, "How do you afford this stuff, seriously."

"I got ways, Kyle." Eric wiggled his eyebrows in what he must have known was a stupid expression, but it succeeded in getting the circle to laugh.

Talk was small while eating, or in Eric's case, nonexistent as he devoured four hot dogs before Kenny cut him off.

"We need that food for the week, fat ass." He'd said before tying off the bags and putting them back in their respected coolers or bags. Phones were set for alarms in the morning and Stan and Kyle were the first to retire to the tents, adjusting the sleeping bags and a brief argument over who was going to waste the battery on their iPod first for night time ambiance. Stan was the only one who could sleep near Kyle these days after the red head had taken up listening to music or movies while he fell asleep. Stan was greatly unbothered by a lot of things, so long as he had a comfy bed to sleep in, which he sort of did. His sleeping bag was piled on top of two blankets Eric had leant to him to keep the bag off the tent floor. Kyle had done the same with borrowed blankets, though he had stylized one of them to prop his pillow up higher as well as supporting him off the ground.

Eric and Kenny followed about an hour after, too bored to stay up later, pausing only to have a minor clothing war when Eric realized Kenny was sleeping in nothing but his underwear and he tried to forcibly fit one of his shirts over Kenny's head. The battle had resulted in Kenny stealing one of Eric's three pillows and refusing to give it back so Eric reluctantly backed down, muttering something about homosexuals and their shirtless ways before falling asleep while Kenny cuddled with the extra pillow, making extra care to hum contentedly into it just to annoy his tent mate.


	2. Chapter 2

Kyle was the first to wake up the next morning, despite the alarms all going off at roughly the same time. Stan was blatantly ignoring it, head jammed under his pillow and groaning miserably as Kyle unzipped the tent and stepped out. They had laid down mats in front of both tents with their shoes there instead of inside the tent and Kyle sat on the opening of the tent, causing the structure to lurch in a bit as he stepped into his slip on Vans shoes. Kyle hadn't had tie up shoes in over two years and even the ones with laces were perfectly modeled to his foot that he could easily slip them on and off without touching the lace.

He moved over to Eric and Kenny's tent, shaking the structure and causing a frightened sort of gasp from Eric, who no doubt had been asleep and thought a bear was ravaging their site or something similar.

"M'up!" Kenny said from the depths of the shaking tent and Kyle stopped with an overly cheerful, "Morning~"

"Gonna kill you, fucking Jew." Eric muttered half heartedly, but Kyle wasn't paying attention anymore.

Kyle rummaged around the food Kenny had packed for anything remotely breakfast like and found little boxes of cereal. He found his favorite, Frosted Flakes, and set about eating it. It took all of a half hour to get the group out of bed, Kyle and Eric still in their pajamas in the end. They sat around the picnic table, lazily eating cereal and discussing what the day was to hold. It was gorgeous out again, sun peeking through the trees to light up the site without cooking them in the heat and Kenny suggested a run around the site. After changing run to walk, Eric agreed to come along.

Eric made a huge show of getting dressed but Kyle slipped on a clean shirt and proceeded to start the walk in his pajama pants. He claimed they were comfier than his normal clothes and he wanted to be comfy on the walk, but Stan knew it was because his pants had pictures of Marvel superheroes on them and Kyle thought they were cool. And anything cool, Kyle liked to show off.

There was a little corner store about three minutes out within the site grounds that Stan promptly went into and bought a Drumstick snack.

"Really? This is your second breakfast?" Kyle asked, laughing at his friend.

Stan took a huge bite of the ice cream top and said through his mouthful, "An AWESOME second breakfast!" before promptly waving his hand in front of his face and trying to swallow the icy substance without looking like an idiot. Which was unsuccessful.

The lake was the next stop and Eric was delighted to find a tire swing tied up to a tree that it seemed wasn't in use. He almost leapt right in before Kenny reminded him he was still fully dressed. Kyle interjected with a very unhelpful "And you might break it, you're so fat." followed by a "Shut up, I'm big boned!" before they moved on.

It wasted a decent amount of time, but Stan turned back early, not having any interest in finding out if there was anything worthwhile after the dozens of other sites, some full of families eating eggs and bacon or whatever else they had cooked up for breakfast. He lounged at the camp site, draping an extra blanket over his stump and opening a book he'd bought for the trip. He hadn't really thought he'd get any time to read it, but he'd forgotten how sociable Kenny could be. If a decent enough family stopped to say hi to him, Kenny could have the other guys there for the next three hours.

Luckily the socializing only took one hour and Stan had finished five chapters of his book by the time the other three came back to the site. Eric was complaining about hicks and some girl they had met who had kept shooting him glances, to which Kenny openly questioned why he was upset about this. Stan didn't hear the rest of the conversation as Kyle had sat down next to him on another stump around their burnt out and blackened pile of firewood from last night. Phil had stacks of them near the office to provide the campers with fire for the night to prevent them cutting down trees so the two boys had packed away as much as possible for the week to hide in the corner of their site.

"How was that?" Stan asked, motioning over to the other two with a nod of his head.

"Ah, nothing much up the end there." Kyle said, getting comfy on the seat and leaning over to peer at Stan's novel. "How is that?" He returned the question, eyes already scanning the page to see what his friend was reading.

"It's slow. I wish something actiony would happen soon." Stan complained, closing the book as Kyle reached forward to turn the pages.

"Actiony?" Kyle briefly touched on Stan's lack of correct words before moving on and finding a stick to prod the blackened wood with. "Kenny wants to go swimming at the lake in a bit, you wanna come?"

"Sure. You wanna change first?" Stan asked, more out of politeness than anything else. He'd seen Kyle change before, hell, he'd seen Eric change before, but in a small tent with little breathing room, he wasn't about to leap in there with someone else undressing.

"Yeah." Kyle didn't seem to give it much thought, continuing to poke into the ash even after agreeing to change. "Yeah, I'll be out in a sec."

Stan laughed and poked his friend's side, causing Kyle to jerk away from him and drop his stick.

"That implies you'll be moving soon. Go get changed and I'll clean up my spot here." Stan said, standing up with some difficulty; his legs had somewhat fallen asleep from staying curled up while he read.

While Kyle ducked into the tent to get ready, Kenny ducked in after him, scowling out the doorway to where Eric was flipping him off and roughly entering the other tent.

"Kenny!" Kyle said with mock surprise. "Get out of my tent, I'm indecent!"

Kenny had to grin at that since Kyle was still fully dressed, holding a pillow in front of him to complete the joke. He crawled forward into the tent, trying to be seductive while a stupid smile threatened to break out on his face.

"That's just how I like 'em, Kyle~" Kenny purred, looping an arm around Kyle's waist, under the pillow, and falling over. He took Kyle to the sleeping bags with him and squeezed his friend around the middle while Kyle laughed and batted at his hands.

"Ken, seriously, get out, I am really going to change." Kyle warned more seriously after he'd stopped laughing and Kenny groaned loudly and said, "Eric's being an asshole, I don't want to go back out."

"What did he do?" Kyle asked, squirming out of Kenny's grip and rummaging through his suitcase, which was perfectly packed, for a pair of swim trunks.

Kenny spread out over Stan's sleeping bag and replied, "He's all pissed off that we went for a walk around cos one of the camping girls has a hard on for him."

Kyle tried to stifle his initial laugh at Kenny's wording and motioned with a wave of his hand for Kenny to continue.

"She was all like 'What site are you in?' and 'Want to come swimming with me later?'. And you know Eric, he's a one woman kinda guy. He's had his eye on Wendy since elementary school." Kenny said, looking over at Kyle. "You think Stan would be mad if they hooked up?"

"That's assuming Wendy Greater Than Thou Testaburger would even give Eric a minute of her time, let alone date her." Kyle arched an eyebrow in return.

"True. She likes them tall, lean and mean." Kenny narrowed his eyes, spreading his hands out in front of him as if picturing Wendy's type of guy.

"And black." Stan's voice joined the conversation, his dark hair a vivid contrast to their light colored tent.

"And black." Kyle returned, raising his hand as if toasting someone at a party.

"Was there a party and I wasn't invited?" Stan asked, acting hurt as he looked over at Kenny on his sleeping bag.

"Oh no, I was just shamelessly seducing your tent mate." Kenny teased without even a hint of shame on his face. He rolled onto his stomach and watched Kyle pull his shirt over his head.

Out of mutual respect for Kyle, and a little in fear of the glare the red head had sent their way as he moved to hook his fingers under the waistband of his pajamas, Kenny and Stan looked away while Kyle slipped out of his bed clothes and into the swim trunks. A loud curse was heard from the tent next door and Kenny shouted through the fabric, "Don't break my shit, Eric, or you'll have to replace it!"

"I'll leave a dollar on your pillow, it'll cover anything I break of yours, Kinny!" Eric shouted back.

"Ugh. Alright guys, lemme out. I need to go make sure my stuff is in order and change as well." Kenny said, lifting himself from the sleeping bag with some reluctance. "I'll watch you change another time, Stan."

"Gee, thanks." Stan replied with a grin. Kenny couldn't hide his laugh as he left, diffusing any seriousness this conversation might have had.

Kyle sat down on his side of the tent, looking around in the front pockets of his bag for things like sunscreen and a hair brush. He must have known it was pointless, but while Stan got changed, Kyle began combing his hair out. It wasn't nearly as chaotic as it had been in elementary school, in fact, not even by half. When Bebe and Kyle had started flirting in high school, Bebe had shown Kyle how to straighten his hair using a flat iron and he'd promptly gone out and bought one. Even with the super heated iron, his hair rarely straightened perfectly, leaving a few waves in his naturally curly hair.

It was more like smooth waves now and he'd stylized it since eleventh grade so it swept over his forehead and almost over one of his eyes. Stan had remarked that if he dyed his hair black, he could be a goth kid and it had warranted him a punch to the shoulder that had bruised almost right away. Stan had reserved any comments made about his friend's hair to himself since then.

After getting changed, the boys stepped out and Kyle nearly laughed at the sight of Eric. He was still insecure about the way he looked and he had thrown a white t-shirt together with his red swim trunks. Kenny was wearing orange, which was unsurprising as it had been his favorite color since he could differentiate which color was which. Stan looked down at his own trunks, which were patterned green and blue and noticed that Kyle was wearing plain black ones. The stereotypical colors they'd had in school had faded through the years and Stan was almost glad for it.

Kenny began the walk towards the lake, gesturing for the others to follow. Eric grabbed a floatation device he'd bought a couple of days ago and a little air pump he'd borrowed from his mom, Stan grabbed some snacks and drinks and Kyle carried the towels. He'd draped them over himself like a royal sort of toga with cape and hat additions and Kenny almost couldn't keep walking from laughing so hard.

"M'yes!" Kyle said with a haughty sort of accent. "Yes, it's quite nice down here in the summer, I think I'll build my summer home right over there." He gestured with a finger towards the lake and Kenny took the opportunity to lean in and say, "Does your summer home need a house keeper who can use the lake whenever he or she would like?"

"No, dear, we have Mexicans for that." Kyle said, running a finger underneath Kenny's chin and making a face much like one would when they were playing with a child.

"Dammit. Mexicans always take the jobs." Kenny pretended to pout until the lake came up before them and Kyle started disrobing to lay out the towels properly. There wasn't much of a beach, per say, just a slope of grass that led onto what must have been about a meter of sand and then the lake. The boys deemed the grass easier to set up on.

Kyle perched himself on his towel with the sunscreen bottle and took his time covering his exposed skin with it while the other three headed down to the sand. Eric flinched at the heat of it underneath his feet, but Kenny had taken off and was already ankle deep in the lake water. Stan cast a glance back at Kyle, as if asking with his expression alone if his friend wanted him to stay behind or go on to the water. Kyle merely smiled and said, "I'll be in in a sec, go tell me if it's cold."

Obediently, Stan walked to the lake and sunk in to his ankles as Kenny had. It was indeed cold.

"Holy shit, it's cold." Stan hissed, shifting about from foot to foot trying to get used to it.

"It's not bad when you get used to it." Kenny said, moving in until the water enveloped his waist. His shorts billowed out for a second before he hurriedly pushed them down properly and shivered. "Yeah, going slow definitely isn't working." Kenny launched forward, sinking under the surface of the lake and splashing Eric in the process, who replied with a curse word that made two strangers lounging not too far way look over at them with disdain.

"Definitely better to get it all over with!" Kenny said resurfacing and shaking the hair from his face. The blonde hair catching the sun almost seemed to blend with Kenny's pale features and for a second, it looked to Stan like Kenny had lost his hair entirely. He almost laughed, but Eric had submerged himself and came back up sputtering more curse words Stan was sure would have the couple nearby moving away at any minute.

"So, Kyle, I think they're saying the water's cold." Stan teased, casting another look up at his friend on the towels, who was laughing wickedly at Eric's reaction.

"I can see that, thanks. Go in, I'll be right there." Kyle said, finishing his methodical protection from the sun and moving to stand up.

Stan didn't waste any time, not wanting to be the last one in, and fell into the deeper waters. It wasn't too deep, only covering Stan's body because he was laying just above the sandy bottom, but it cushioned his fall and was indeed cold. He withstood the cold, even though it seeped into his skin and made him shiver all over, paddling himself out further to where Kenny was swimming. It got warmer as he swam and a realization hit Stan as he looked up.

"We're under the trees, that's why it's so goddamn cold!" He informed the others. "When you swim out here where the sun hits, it warms up."

"Sure you didn't piss in the lake, Kinny?" Eric shot over.

"Gross!" Kyle shouted at the group wading out deeper as he stepped into the water and added, "Fuck!"

"Run, Kyle! Dive into the ice water, it's the only chance!" Stan called to him dramatically, finally out where he could stand up straight and the water was at his shoulders. "Dive if you want to live!"

"Seriously why is it still so cold up here?" Kyle was shouting, ignoring Stan but moving quickly nonetheless. He fell forward into the water, pushing his hair back to keep it out of his eyes. "Shouldn't….I don't know, summer have warmed it all up?"

"Apparently not." Kenny replied, even though he was pretty sure Kyle's question had been rhetorical. He was floating on his back, drifting farther away from his friends. "This is pretty relaxing, actually."

Kyle succeeded in joining them further out and nodded.

"I guess. I mean, once you get past the cold, it's nice to be swimming again." He mused aloud.

"Beats the indoor pool at South Park." Eric chimed in, floating between Stan and Kyle, arms outstretched to playfully swat at his friends. Kyle ended up high fiving him in the water and it sent Eric into a very slow spin which made Stan laugh so hard he could barely stand up straight.

"Oooohh noooo, you guuuyyys." Eric spoke in slow motion as he lazily spun in the water. "Heeeeeelp~" This didn't help Stan's dilemma and he fell back into the lake, glad that his natural buoyancy saved him from sinking right to the bottom.

"This could be a new sport. Cartman Spinning." Kyle said, smirking at what his handiwork had produced and swimming along after Eric to increase the spin.

"Hey, Stan! Wanna test the swing out with me?" Kenny asked, back stroking his way close to Stan.

"Sounds good. I'M FIRST!" Stan took off, closest to the shore and using it to his advantage. Kenny splashed about in the water, trying to get his feet on the ground before following. Eric watched them go as he spun, holding on to Kyle's hand as the red head gave him a start to the spin.

Stan reached the tire swing first, as he had intended and stuck a foot in. Kenny stopped him and grabbed his ankle.

"You're gonna twist or get stuck, don't do that. Stand on top of the swing or like this." Kenny propped a foot in the swing but he faced the lake, heel on the edge of the tire and the rest of him ready to jump into the lake.

"Kenny, what would we do without your infinite wisdom?" Stan asked, situating himself like Kenny had done.

"Die?" Kenny offered, half kidding and half serious, though he knew Stan wouldn't get the reference. No one ever did, but it had been easier to deal with over the last years with the infrequent number of times he had to pretend he hadn't just died in front of his friends. Due to his studying and his group of friends becoming a lot more laid back than elementary school, Kenny had been safer than he'd ever been lately.

Stan hopped back with the swing, one of his feet pushing the tire back to keep it behind him, and let it fall forward. He did this a few times to get up some decent speed to the swing, kicking off from the ground as it swung back though Kenny insisted he could just push Stan if he wanted to go faster. Eventually, he let go, pushing off from the tire with his foot and flying into the lake with a splash that set Eric's spin completely off tempo.

"What the fuck, Stan?" Eric shouted from the water moving to stand and slowly wade away from where the tire swing let out.

Stan came up laughing and gestured for Kenny to follow. The blonde haired boy didn't need any more invitation and got up on the top of the tire and rocked it back and forth. When he'd gained enough speed and was sure Stan was out of the way, he let go as well, launching himself farther than Stan had made and making it look almost graceful until he hit the water on his side and the resulting water wave led Stan to hold up six fingers in a mock rating of Kenny's water performance.

"You just don't know good diving when you see it." Kenny said, joking with Stan when he saw the rating, pushing hair from his face.

"Excuse me for thinking that landing flat on your side isn't exactly a _dive_, Kenny." Stan grinned, swimming back to the sand to get around at the swing again.

As they demonstrated various ways to jump from things and land on other things, Kyle had lost interest with Eric and was lazily drifting around, farther out in the lake than any of his friends. In some ways, he preferred it like this so he didn't have to be disturbed by all the splashing and Eric cursing under his breath. He had been a strong swimmer when he was younger, but after an unfortunate accident at a water park, Kyle had stopped swimming in public areas as much as he could. The lake was full of germs and probably parasites and it was serving to make Kyle's skin crawl. He tried to move just enough to discourage things from settling on him, but the urge to just give up and have a shower in the public bathhouse was rising quickly.

If he hated germs in water, he hated them almost as much in public washrooms. But it was the only shower area and Kyle had to use something.

A good two hours passed like this, Kyle avoiding the busiest part of the lake, Eric resorting to finding little fish or cool items on the lake floor while Stan and Kenny exhausted themselves running back to the tire swing. Kyle was the one to say something first.

"I think I'm gonna head back, guys."

Stan turned in the water to face his friend instead of Kenny perched comfortably on the swing.

"Really? Aw." Stan pretended to pout, but Kyle wasn't looking. He began wading back to the sandy so-called-beach and continued talking.

"I want to have a shower and someone's gotta get dinner ready before fatass realizes he's hungry." Kyle said. "I can go do both."

"I'll come too!" Kenny clambered off the swing and went to the towels to meet Kyle. "I can get dinner started while you shower."

Stan fell back in the lake and groaned.

"I'm here alone with Eric? No fun." He complained loudly, knowing it would piss off Eric who wasn't too far off at this point.

"Fuck you very much, Stanley Marsh." Eric's reply was fairly calm considering, too preoccupied with counting the little trinkets he'd found to think of an insult better than that.

Kyle waved at his remaining friends over his shoulder as he and Kenny walked back up the grassy slope to the main gravel path of the campsite. He turned left while Kenny went right to their lot and braced himself for grimy showers. In truth, it wasn't really all that bad. They even supplied shower supplies, which Kyle was reluctant to use but he didn't want to go all the way back to the site just to walk back here. The tiles were relatively clean in about half of the stalls and the only muck lining the other half was sand and grass. Kyle guessed beach goers. He slipped into one of the clean stalls and proceeded to cautiously shower whatever he might have attracted in the lake off.

Kenny was back at the site, organizing food and succeeding in getting wildly distracted every five minutes. He figured they'd make something easy and there was a little bump protruding from the ground near the table with outlets in it. The camp provided electricity for things like microwaves or if the rich bastards needed a mini fridge instead of the cooler Kenny had been rummaging through for a beer just now. Kenny didn't much like beer, having bad experiences with it during his parents alcoholic years, but it was something easy to drink while preparing this little plastic kettle into the outlet to boil water. He had gotten the tiny plastic thing from his mom when he'd moved out, somewhat of a house warming gift from one poor person to the next, and though it was barely containing what Kenny needed it to contain, it was still working and so he kept it.

There were fountains of water scattered all over the camp ground and it didn't take long for Kenny to find one and fill up, waving politely at a young couple holding hands down the trail. The girl waved back but the boy did not, preferring instead to ignore Kenny and keep walking, his hand in hers pulling the girl forward with him.

"Alright then, mister big shot, fuck you too." Kenny muttered under his breath and let go of the lever to the fountain with a rude hand gesture in the direction of the retreating duo before heading back to boil the water. He'd packed about twelve boxes of instant noodle cups, unsure of what exactly camping food consisted of. He'd never mentioned it to the guys, but the only camping he'd ever done as a kid, aside from school trips or invited by one of the other guys' family, was having to sleep in a tent in their back yard after a home invasion to prove his parents weren't dealing drugs.

Turned out they weren't dealing but they were growing and the whole house had been turned inside out looking for the stuff. So camping food wasn't exactly his area. Luckily, instant noodles were easy and the water boiled once he plugged the kettle to the wires included and Kyle had them covered for any other needs regarding food.

"I'm back! I've survived!" Speaking of Kyle, the boy's voice rung out as Kenny waited by the picnic table and a flash of red hair was seen disappearing into one of the tents.

"Nobody raped you?" Kenny asked, smirking back at the tent and knowing how much Kyle hated public anything if he thought it would infect him with something.

"Thank god, no." Kyle said with an exaggerated groan. "I would have killed myself on a broken tile, so the fact that I'm here is a good sign."

Kenny wasn't entirely sure Kyle was teasing, but he forced a small laugh anyway as a sign that he'd heard. When Kyle got out of the tent, he was fully dressed and his hair was combed, though it still fell in unkempt waves everywhere but his eyes. Kenny noticed with some amusement that Kyle had used a couple of bobby pins to pin his hair out of his eyes and as the boy neared, he reached over to brush at the pins and said, "Cute. They suit you, wifey."

Kyle swatted Kenny's hand away and tried to hide a smile.

"Don't call me wifey." Kyle's retort didn't have much venom to it and he noticed Kenny boiling water. "Are we all having that?"

"Would you like to have something different?" Kenny asked in the same tone that Kyle had.

"No?" Kyle added an upward inflection to his reply with a rather idiotic expression to accompany it which made Kenny laugh and hand Kyle more noodle cups from the package under the table.

Stan and Eric returned not long after Kyle and Kenny had started on extra noodles for them and it took all of five minutes for Stan to slip into the laziest clothes Kyle had ever seen him own and Eric to simply wrap a blanket around himself and call dibs on the stump everyone was already aware was his. He had even scratched "Eric" into the stump using his roasting stick from the night before.

"Aw, making us dinner?" Stan teased, coming up behind Kyle, who had taken it upon himself to pour equal amounts of hot water into the cups.

"You know it, baby." Kyle went along with it, almost smiling when he realized this was probably going to become a running joke.

"He's such a good wife, isn't he, Stan?" Kenny called from where he was handing over his finished noodles to Eric, who had made grabby hands at it. He really didn't want to argue with the guy who had forced a kid to eat his own parents and it was a small battle.

"The best." Stan wound his arms around Kyle's waist and the red head rolled his eyes. Running joke it was, then.

"For the record, if I were into dudes, I don't think I'd marry either of you." Kyle said, handing Stan a cup and the black haired boy released his friend in favor of sliding onto the table bench and waiting for the noodles to adequately soften.

"Why?" Stan asked.

"We don't fit his rich tastes." Kenny said, still joking though he knew anything he said would be answered by Kyle in a serious manner. "Kyle's a high class wifey, he needs to be taken care of."

"I wouldn't marry you cos you're all assholes, just sayin'." Kyle retorted with a smirk at Kenny.

"God, you fucking gaylords, let me digest my noodles in peace." Eric complained, scooping up noodles on a plastic fork that had come attached to the cup in plastic wrap.

"Just jealous, Eric." Kenny said, leaving it at that as Kyle handed him a cup and he cradled it in his hands like he was holding a diamond.

They ate in relatively silent conditions, every so often being punctured with a story or two about how Eric had had better food in Vietnam, none of the other boys making the obvious statement that Eric had never been to Vietnam in his life. The stories continued even after they finished and finally the boys were resorted to hearing fantastically made up war stories about how Eric had once shot a man directly in the heart without a scope from the ditch. Kenny had to admit, though never aloud, that Eric was a wonderful story teller. Stupid and arrogant stories, yes, but they were told so convincingly you could almost picture Eric in military garb hiding in a trench. The only thing that ruined the illusion was that Kenny knew him. And Kenny knew that Eric wouldn't hide in a trench unless that trench had food. The damn fool wouldn't even set foot into a war zone without express written permission that he'd be rewarded handsomely for his time spent. Preferably in video games or weed.

"I'll see you guys tomorrow." Kyle was the first to turn in again, leading the others to discuss what a party pooper he was rather loudly which encouraged a string of curses and a shoe thrown at them from Kyle. The shoe was Stan's and the boy made it all of ten minutes before his one shoe being out of place near the stumps irked him enough to go place it back on the mat. He turned in soon after that and Kenny stretched out, casting a glance at Eric.

"Guess that makes two of us, huh?"

"I'm going to sleep too." Eric said, flipping Kenny off and grinning.

"Motherfucker." Kenny playfully insulted Eric and the brunette stood up, tucking the blanket closer around him as if he was cold. He managed to uncover one hand to ruffle Kenny's hair, wildly messing it up, before saying, "Don't stay up too late, Ken."

'Ken'. One of the only pet names Kenny had ever received and the only one Eric only used when they were alone. Kyle and Stan called him Ken on occasion, but Eric always waited until it was just the two of them. Despite being an arrogant prick, Eric was a good guy. Now, at least. When they were kids, Kenny would have likened him to Hitler, but now that he'd calmed down…it was safer to call him a friend.

"Don't want you getting killed or something and have there be blood on my seat tomorrow." Eric got one last jibe in before disappearing into the tent.

Make that a friend who is still, and will always be, an asshole.


End file.
